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The designated ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel once again turned to the wildcard of “spirituality,” this time from Vietnam, where he found inspiration in its rituals to further inflate the cult of the figure of the dictator Fidel Castro.
In his X account, the leader praised Vietnamese spirituality for its “depth” and for honoring both ancestors and historical leaders. As a good student of 'Ñico López', he did not miss the opportunity to include Fidel and Raúl Castro - to whom he owes his position in the Palace - on the list of honorees, as if they were equivalent to Ho Chi Minh in popular devotion.
The move is not innocent. In totalitarian communist regimes in Asia, from North Korea to Vietnam, the cult of personality has been a key tool for ideological control. Colossal monuments, ubiquitous portraits, and a tailored official history have served to reinforce obedience to power.
The Communist Party of Cuba, lacking tangible results after decades of crisis, seeks to reproduce that formula: to replace management with veneration, and reforms with indoctrination.
Schools are in ruins, but there are busts of Martí; there are no medicines, but there are slogans; there are no decent salaries, but a spiritualist congress or an endless tribute to "the historical leaders" is being organized.
The “appointed by favoritism” seems convinced that the Cuban people will forget about scarcity if they are told again and again that Fidel was a demigod and that “spirituality” can fill empty refrigerators.
The result, however, is a hollow narrative, increasingly detached from a population that survives amidst blackouts and long lines, and from those champions of yesteryear who still have two neurons to spare.
The export of Asian propaganda formulas will not make Cubans adore their leaders. On the contrary, it reveals the desperation of an elite that, lacking the ability to solve the country’s real problems, seeks to maintain itself through rhetoric, manufactured memory, and a sterile cult to figures who, like the ghosts of spiritualism, are invoked because they have nothing new to offer.
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